四

IV

蓝雁，白雁，你会说，

Blue-geese, white-geese, you may say,

不错，我了解这两重性，这双倍的怀乡；

yes, I know this duality, this double nostalgia;

我知道那无法满足的渴念，

I know the insatiable longing

在冬天，渴望棕榈树影

in winter, for palm-shadow

渴望沙滩，海面烤焦的草；

and sand and burnt sea-drift;

但在夏天，当我注视

but in the summer, as I watch

海浪卷来，直到浪花

the wave till its edge of foam

碰到火烫的沙滩，即刻

touches the hot sand and instantly

就消失，像赤道上下雪，

vanishes like snow on the equator,

我嚷起来：且住，且住；

I would cry out, stay, stay;

这时我想起纤细耐久的霜

then I remember delicate enduring frost

想起冬晨它画的图案；

and its mid-winter dawn-pattern;

在这正午毒日下，我想起

in the hot noon-sun, I think of the grey

白蒙蒙的冬晨；一如这浪

opalescent winter-dawn; as the wave

在卵石滩上燃烧，我想，

burns on the shingle, I think,

你不见得比冬霜更美；

you are less beautiful than frost;

但我确也祈求，

but it is also true that I pray,

哦，请在浪花的边线上

O, give me burning blue

带给我燃烧的蓝色

and brittle burnt sea-weed

和烤焦的脆弱的海草，

above the tide-line,

当我满怀饥渴，伫立

as I stand, still unsatisfied,

在雪地上松树长长的影子里。

under the long shadow-on-snow of the pine.